


Time To Be You And Me

by Imoshen



Category: The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Alpha Nicky | Nicolò di Genova, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Fluff, Heats and Ruts, M/M, Mild breeding kink, Non-Traditional Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Omega Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani, Pregnancy, Toys, but a kid is mentioned, intersex omega, not a kidfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-20
Updated: 2021-01-20
Packaged: 2021-03-12 07:54:58
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,331
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28882041
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Imoshen/pseuds/Imoshen
Summary: With Quynh's return comes time to heal, and Joe and Nicky make a decision to use that time for something else, too. ("Something else" is, eventually, given the name Maryam Lucia.)
Relationships: Background Andy/Quynh - Relationship, Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova
Comments: 14
Kudos: 123





	Time To Be You And Me

When they finally make the decision, it has been discussed for two years between them. Joe has debated it in his own mind for far longer than that before he even mentioned it to Nicky.

The true beginning of it was Quỳnh’s return; when she’d found them with fury and pain in her heart and the mess that was Booker dragged behind her. There had been a lot of screaming and a lot of accusations, and Nicky’s blood drenching the floor and his clothes and Joe’s hands when his mate, his _fool of a mate_ , had stepped between Quỳnh’s sword and Andy. Joe still sometimes wants to shake his mate for that stunt, but in Nicky’s defense: it worked. Quỳnh’s fury had been directed at Andy. She hadn’t really wanted to hurt Nicky or Joe, hadn’t even really wanted to hurt Booker. She’d been so shocked at having almost killed Nicky, she’d slowed down long enough for them to get it into her head that Andy was _mortal_ now. She wouldn’t bounce back from whatever Quỳnh threw at her.

There had been a lot of tears that day. They had talked, long into the night, and while nothing had truly been resolved by a single day and night… it had been the start.

Booker’s punishment still stood: a hundred years of exile, but Quỳnh wanted to get to know her new little brother and sister. In the end, they’d agreed to slacken the rules: Booker was not welcome to their safe houses, and he would not join them on missions for at least another twenty years – but they would not leave him alone. They would call him regularly (at least once a week, Quỳnh had demanded) and eventually meet up in person on neutral territory and see where it went from there. Nicky, in his blunt way, had put it best:

“You’re still family, and we will eventually forgive… but it’s too close and too painful for now. Trust has to be earned back, Book, and we aren’t the ones who can help you heal. You proved that.”

Mutual agreement was, no missions for at least a year. They needed the time, and not even Andy argued. She’d been wide-eyed and as vulnerable as Joe had ever seen her in the wake of Quỳnh’s return. As the year progressed and their relationship slowly, so slowly began to heal, Andy healed as well… until, one day, that healing went a step further.

It was one of the accidents that happen in a kitchen: a glass broke in the sink as Andy was doing the dishes, and she cut herself on the sharp edges. It was a shallow wound… and even before Nicky could go for the first-aid kit it stopped bleeding. Slowly, so slowly, the edges began to knit. They all stared in wonder as the red line became pink, became white, and disappeared.

It was another night for many tears, but this time the tears were happy ones.

As far as anyone could guess, later when they were able to talk about it at all, it had been Andy’s body or maybe her soul, screaming for help when she stopped healing at immortal speed: she’d pushed herself so hard for so long, never truly taking a break to recover. Something must have tipped the scales, and her body stopped healing so quickly because she needed that break. Nile had thrown her hands up towards the ceiling.

“I told you, y’all need therapy so badly!”

They had time, Joe thought that night as he held Nicky, breathed in his scent and felt him breathe beneath his hand. His mate was fast asleep, warm and trusting in his arms… and Joe thought back to the last time they’d had time. It had been the reason why he and Nicky hadn’t been in England with Andy and Quỳnh, actually: their daughter’s marriage. Lucia had not been their child by blood, but they’d raised her nonetheless, and she’d been so happy to have them at her wedding ceremony. It had been a beautiful twenty-five years raising her, being a family in truth. Quỳnh’s loss and Andy’s despair had been even harder to bear after that period of calm bliss.

That night, Joe had thought back to how it had felt to hold Lucia in his arms when she’d been an infant, her baby-curious eyes staring up at him in wonder. She’d had his dark eyes and Nicolò’s pale skin, and it had been easy to believe she was theirs in truth. He’d held Nicky a little tighter and thought back on how advanced medicine had become in the past century, how much more likely it was for a child to survive their own birth and grow into a healthy adult, and he’d begun to wonder.

It took a lot of courage to bring it up with Nicky. Joe had found it in Nicky’s arms as they lay in bed one night, Nicky’s embrace warm and strong around him, his familiar heart a steady rhythm beneath Joe’s ear.

“Would you… if we can. Would you want to?”

He’d brought Nicky’s hand down to rest on his lower belly, where his empty uterus was. Nicky’s fingers had twitched between his, but he hadn’t pulled away. “If you wanted to? Maybe,” he admitted. “Would you?”

“Maybe,” Joe whispered back. He hid his face against Nicky’s shoulder and sighed. “Talk about it tomorrow?”

“Yes,” Nicky agreed and pulled him in closer, and they fell asleep with the possibility a tiny, bright seed in their minds.

Nicky stares at the calendar on his phone, then the one on the wall. There’s no mistaking it, this time. He’s just about to hit a rut, and Joe’s scent tells him his mate is about to go into heat. It’s new for both of them – they were so careful over the centuries not to let their cycles synch up, even after reliable birth-control was available. In a way, it feels incredibly daring now, despite this being no coincidence but carefully planned.

Joe’s scent is always delicious to Nicky, has been from that very first night they sat side-by-side after finally washing blood and sweat and death off in cold river water. Nicky draws it into his lungs in deep, greedy pulls of air now, feels drunk on it in a way he never has just before a rut. Joe’s been there for almost every single one of them, same as he’s been there for Joe’s heats, but this… this is different.

“Fuck, you’re potent,” Joe breathes from where he’s just stepped into the room from their tiny en-suite. “Nicky.”

Nicky tosses his phone towards the dresser. It’ll be ignored for the next two days at _least_ and is already forgotten before it lands. Nicky has turned and looked at Joe and his world has narrowed to his mate. Joe is freshly showered, his hair still a mess of dripping wet curls, and the man doesn’t even wear a towel. Nicky’s fingers twitch with the desire to touch, stroke his hands all over that beautiful body and worship his mate the way he deserves to be worshipped. “Last chance, my heart.” His voice is a rasp already. “Still sure you want this?”

“Still sure,” Joe confirms, and because he’s the best mate the world has ever seen, he keeps the length of the room between them and asks. “You’re still sure you want it, too?”

“I’m sure,” Nicky promises, and holds out both arms. “Come here, cuore mio. Let me hold you.”

Joe’s skin is already warmer than usual and Nicky tucks him close, nuzzles at his cheek and jaw and throat. Joe all but purrs in his arms, clinging to him as his scent spikes. Nicky takes a deep breath and smiles against Joe’s cheek. “If I’m potent, you’re intoxicating my love,” he murmurs, and Joe laughs.

“I’m _soaked_ ,” he corrects. His close-shaven beard rasps against Nicky’s skin as he rubs their cheeks together affectionately. “And that’s your fault, so you’d better do something about it.”

Nicky has to laugh, and then he has to kiss his mate. “I’d better do something about it, hmm? That’s how it’s going to be?”

“You know it,” Joe murmurs back between kisses. “Be a good Alpha and fuck me silly.”

“I really don’t think that’s going to be a problem,” Nicky muses. He strokes both hands down Joe’s back and squeezes handfuls of his ass. “Bed, love. I want to spread you out before we lose our minds.”

Joe, spread out among their sheets and so obviously wanting Nicky, is an incredible sight on his own. Balancing on the edge of a rut, he’s almost more than Nicky can take. He crawls into bed and between Joe’s spread legs, trails kisses up his thigh and over his hip, worries a short-lived mark into the tender skin there. Joe’s breath hitches, and his knees come up to bracket Nicky. His scent grows thicker, his cock twitches between them, and Nicky smiles and licks further inward. Joe’s cunt is drenched in slick, warm and wet and clearly ready when Nicky rubs his thumb along the rim. Joe moans, muscles fluttering against the pad of Nicky’s thumb. “Please, Nico,” he says, and Nicky’s thumb slips in easily. Joe moans, then yelps when Nicky licks daintily around his thumb, flicks his tongue and laps up Joe’s slick with a pleased little hum.

Using his mouth is one of Nicky’s all-time favorite ways to reduce his mate to a needy, wanting mess. He loves coaxing his mate to hardness, loves licking the first traces of slick from his skin. With Joe already hard and wet and wanting, he doesn’t tease too much, licks and sucks and works more fingers into his beloved, strong muscles clenching around his fingers until Joe gasps out his name and tugs on his hair. “Want you inside,” his beloved demands, and Nicky groans and pulls his mouth away from the temptation of Joe’s slick entrance.

Joe moans at the taste of his own slick on Nicky’s lips, buries his fingers in Nicky’s hair and sucks on his lip. “Take me,” he demands between kisses, “ _now_ , Nico,” and Nicky is helpless against his voice, his scent, his warm body. He doesn’t stop kissing Joe, doesn’t have to. They’ve known each other for so long now, have danced this particular dance unnumerable times. His body knows Joe’s, knows how to angle and how to push to sink into his wet heat with ease. Joe’s low, deep moan is so full of satisfaction at having Nicky in him as deep as he can go, Nicky trembles just from hearing it.

“So good,” Joe rubs his cheek against Nicky’s, his hands over Nicky’s shoulders, “you feel so good, Nicky, fuck I love how we feel together.”

Nicky hums, rocking his hips into Joe ever-so-slightly. “I’ll have to be so careful with you, once you’re all round and swollen with our child,” he murmurs against Joe’s ear. His mate’s breath hitches, and Nicky smirks. “You’ll have to be on your side, hayati… I’ll hold you so close, just rock into you… just… like… this… all slow and gentle…”

Joe moans for each long, slow push of Nicky’s hips, slick inner walls fluttering around Nicky’s cock, body obviously wanting more, but he doesn’t push, doesn’t try to shift them. He just arches into Nicky, warm and pliant, and his scent spikes and makes Nicky’s head spin.

The first time is like that, slow and sweet, full of kisses and gentle teasing, and orgasm a gentle wave they ride cheek to cheek.

The second time is rougher, both of them gone a little wild on their mixed scents, spurred on by hormones and gentled by love. Nicky rolls Joe onto his front and urges him up to his hands and knees, fucks him from behind with his teeth nipping at the scar of his mating bite on Joe’s shoulder. Joe, for his part, curses and pleads and eggs Nicky on, taking everything his mate is dishing out and demanding more. He leaves scratch marks on Nicky’s sides, his arms, everywhere he can reach, and Nicky growls for every burning line. When he comes it’s with his teeth digging into the scar, Joe’s scream vibrating against his mouth.

“That _hurt_ ,” Joe complains, a while later. They’re resting on their sides by then, Nicky’s knot still tying them together in the most intimate of ways. He even manages to sound a little disgruntled, and Nicky kisses the scar and strokes his hand up and down Joe’s chest.

“I’m sorry, my love,” he murmurs, hiding his smile in the sweaty curls at Joe’s nape. “Can I make it up to you?”

Joe shifts and turns his head. “Give me a kiss?”

The angle isn't ideal, but they’ve got practice. When Nicky’s knot finally goes down enough for them to part, he urges Joe back up onto his knees, to his mate’s grumbled protest.

“Hush,” Nicky murmurs, “we’re going to keep you nice and plugged, my love. No leaking this time.”

Joe moans and shifts on his knees, widens his stance. “Please,” he agrees, and Nicky’s not getting hard again for a while, but that doesn’t mean he can’t give his mate more pleasure. He made sure the toys he might want were waiting nice and clean on one beside table, within easy reach. He picks Joe’s favorite, a thick plug that is just slightly ribbed, and Joe groans as soon as the tip slides into his stretched-out cunt. “Fffuuuck, Nico!”

“In a while,” Nicky agrees, smirking. He rests one hand on Joe’s lower back and plays with the plug, pushing it in inch by inch and then pausing when it’s at the widest point before he allows Joe’s body to suck it in – only to pull it out again, just as slowly, spread him wide. It rubs nicely against that sensitive spot just inside, and Joe moans, slick dripping from his cunt and coating the toy. Nicky groans and leans in for a quick taste, and Joe sobs his name and clenches around the toy and comes, just like that.

They nap, Joe curled into Nicky and his nose buried in his Alpha’s neck.

Joe is exhausted and sore after almost two days spent in bed with Nicky, but his body isn't done with him yet – though the burning need in his veins has weakened over the past few hours. Still, Nicky’s scent has him slick with need, and he suspects his own scent is doing much the same for Nicky, given how his Alpha keeps scenting his throat and purring low in his throat.

Joe’s sprawled on his back, Nicky a warm, familiar weight between his legs, his Alpha’s knot snug in his cunt. Nicky is purring again, nuzzling his throat as they rest.

“I love you,” he murmurs as he strokes tired fingers through Nicky’s messy hair. The purring deepens, Nicky’s lips pressing a kiss against Joe’s throat.

“I love you too.” Nicky’s voice is low, a rough rumble against Joe’s chest. He doesn’t mind. “My Yusuf.”

“My Nicolò,” Joe agrees, the leg he’d slung around Nicky’s waist tightening a little. “My mate… think you’ll be the first to know?”

Nicky’s hand strokes down Joe’s side to massage the thigh muscles a little, and Joe purrs with how good it feels. “Probably,” his Alpha hums. “I know your body better than you do, after all.”

Joe chuckles and uses his hold in Nicky’s hair to tilt his head back so he can see his mate’s eyes. Nicky looks just as exhausted, but his eyes are warm and happy.

“You do,” Joe agrees belatedly, having lost himself a little in gazing into Nicky’s eyes. “And I know yours… and I know your knot’s going down, baby.”

“The knot, yeah… everything else not so much,” Nicky groans, and Joe laughs and tightens around him just to hear him groan. It earns him a growl and a nip to his throat, and then they’re off again.

Joe wakes on day four of their shared heat/rut with a blessedly clear head and decidedly uninterested in sex. He’s not sore anymore – his immortal healing has taken care of all the aches and pains their marathon sex session left behind – but he’s sticky and in dire need of a thorough shower. Nicky, curled against him and just stirring, isn't any less fragrant.

“Come on hayati,” Joe groans. “Wake up. I need a shower or I’m going to be one cranky Omega.”

Nicky growls at him, but finally allows himself to be prodded out of bed and into the shower. He wakes up more when they’re under the warm spray, crowds Joe against the shower wall and kisses him – and yelps when Joe bites his lower lip.

“Don’t even think about it,” he tells his Alpha. “I want food and at least thirty minutes of fresh air and actual sunlight.”

Nicky snorts, but reaches for the soap. “Oh, you’ll be a wonderful example of a docile, glowing pregnant Omega,” he teases. Joe grins.

“You know I’ll be.”

His scent changes two weeks later… and Nicky _is_ the first to know.

_Twelve months later_

Joe looks up from his sketch when his daughter makes a low noise, and the sight hits his heart with all the strength of a point-blank bullet.

Nicky is sitting in the big armchair by the window, his book face-down on the armrest and his shirt open. Their daughter is cradled against his chest, happily sucking on his nipple, and Nicky is smiling down at her with his face aglow with love.

Joe’s heart aches with how much he loves his mate and their daughter, and he quietly flips a page in his sketchbook and begins a new piece.

Nicky glances up when he hears the page flip, and his soft smile widens. “Another one?”

“I can’t help it,” Joe tells him. His pencil is flying over the page, capturing Nicky’s big hand holding Maryam’s tiny body so securely, her tiny fist against his breastbone, the slight swell of Nicky’s chest, almost hidden from view by their daughter and the soft fall of his shirt. The first time Nicky nursed their daughter, three days after Maryam Lucia was born, they both cried over her tiny head. By now, it has become a regular part of their day, though Joe always goes a little misty-eyed when he sees their daughter at Nicky’s chest. He’s blaming it on the hormones.

Joe has, admittedly, been almost as obsessed with the gentle change to his mate’s body as Nicky had been about the way Joe’s body had grown softer and round with pregnancy. That roundness is gone now, only the slight swell of his breast remaining, but Nicky still strokes his hand over Joe’s belly when they curl up with each other at night. Joe doesn’t mind… he’s usually stroking his fingers along the edge of the swell of Nicky’s breast, fascinated with the way the combination of Joe’s changed scent and Maryam’s newborn-scent triggered this change. Nicky’s just as sensitive as Joe is, but they’re also both usually far too tired to do anything about it except fall asleep until Maryam wakes up and demands more food.

“I know,” Nicky says softly, and Joe glances up again to see Nicky’s attention has returned to Maryam. He’s still smiling, warm and full of love. “You know how many photos I take when you’re feeding her.”

Joe grins, sketches a close-up of Maryam’s tiny fist into the margin of the full sketch. “We’re hopeless.”

“I love being hopeless with you, Yusuf al-Kaysani.”

Maryam stops drinking for a moment to add a happy baby-noise before she goes back to nursing. Nicky looks up at Joe, the corners of his mouth twitching. Joe bites his lower lip… and then they’re laughing, bright and happy.

Maryam drinks on, warm and safe in her father’s arms.

**Author's Note:**

> Sooo, yes... in this world, a mated Alpha will start lactating a few days after the birth of their offspring, no matter if they're male or female. Two people who can nurse a child are better than one, right? (Plus I wanted that image of Nicky with his daughter. Sue me.)
> 
> Comments and kudos make an author's day <3


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